Dale Jarrett was born into the world of stock car racing. His father, Ned Jarrett was two times winner of the Grand National Championship, his older brother; Glenn was also NASCAR stock car racer.

Dale Jarrett in August 2007 at Bristol Motor Speedway (Kim Phillips - Wiki Commons)

Dale was born on the 26th November 1956 in the town of Newton, North Carolina. He was a natural athlete, proving this by becoming the star quarterback of the football team, the star forward on the basketball team, the star shortstop on the baseball team and the star golfer while completing his studies at Newton Conover High School in Hickory, N.C. He was named his high school's Athlete of the Year as a senior after competing in football, basketball, baseball and golf. He also won Golfer of the Year in his North Carolina district in 1974 and '75.

When Dale graduated from high school he had no idea of what he wanted to do for a living, he was offered a full golf scholarship from the University of South Carolina but he turned it down saying he "wasn’t much interested in studying". His father was later to say, "I knew that he was going to be a professional athlete of some sort because he had so much God-given talent, I really thought he was going to be a pro golfer more than anything else." While deciding what he was going to do Dale took a job doing odd jobs such as taking tickets, driving the pace car, selling popcorn and even mowing the lawn at the Hickory Motor Speedway that his father owned. This was a job he disliked a lot and he even asked his father to buy some goats so that they could eat the grass to save him cutting it!

Dale was married at the age of eighteen and had his first son, Jason, but the marriage didn’t last and the couple divorced shortly afterwards. It wasn’t until he was twenty years old that he really started to take an interest in racing, and built a race car with two friends and after his father loaned him the money to buy an engine he started to drive the car.

His first race when he started in twenty fourth places and finished in ninth was an eye-opener to him - this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life! Both Dale and his father often recall that night with fond memories. Life was not always easy for him, he would get by, earning a little money competing in the Limited Sportsman Division at Hickory and trying to make a name for himself before moving up to the NASCAR Busch Series in 1982.

Driving the #24 for Horace Isenhower his best finish was third at Hickory, finishing sixth in points with fourteen Top Tens. There were no wins in 1983 but he had four poles and seventeen Top Fives giving him fifth place in the standings. Dale had six poles and nineteen Top Tens and finishing a career best fourth at the end of the season in 1984 and made his debut for the Cup at Martinsville Speedway, finishing fourteenth before making two more Cup starts that season, at the Firecracker 400and the American 500.

As his career progressed he was victorious in the prestigious Daytona 500 three times (1993, 1996, 2000), with his father broadcasting all three races for CBS, he was honoured as Driver of the Year in all forms of motor-sports racing in 1999, when he won the NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship, won 32 races on 16 different tracks in NASCAR's top series (Winston Cup and Nextel Cup), named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 and voted the USG Person of the Year Award in 2004.

He retired from points racing after the 2008 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. At the weekend’s pre season meeting, he spoke to the other drivers, saying "Enjoy this. We all have our time in this, and mine has been fantastic. To me, it has been an honour and a privilege to be able to race in this series and say I raced with and against and sometimes beat the best in the world. Thanks for allowing me to do that. Enjoy it. It’s a great sport, and you guys make it what it is". Dale is now living in Hickory with his wife since 1984, Kellee, his sons Jason and Zachary, and his daughters, Natalee and Karsyn.

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Dale Jarrett - Wikipedia
Dale Jarrett's Biography
About Dale Jarrett

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